1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a hybrid fault current limiter and, more particularly, to a hybrid fault current limiter sensing and limiting a fault current that occurs in an electric power system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A fault current limiter is a means of detecting a fault current and limiting the current to a normal level within several seconds, using a superconductor as a current limiting device which has substantially no resistance until certain up to a predetermined current value but rapidly represents a high resistance over a predetermined current value to limit the conducting current.
The fault current limiter is concentrated with a huge amount of energy due to resistance generated by the superconductor, such that energy consumption of the superconductor increases as the voltage applied to the superconductor increases.
Thus, to minimize the energy consumption of the superconductor, a large number of the superconductors is needed which leads to increasing the manufacturing cost. As a total volume increases in accordance with use of huge number of the superconductors, thereby increasing the installation and cooling cost.
The hybrid fault current limiter using a fewer numbers of superconductors or the conventional method is suggested to solve the problem, but the suggestion has failed to solve the price problem.